Sunday, November 24, 2013

If you are going the nostalgia route, you need to go as far down the path as you can.

So the Charlotte Bobcats -- soon to be the Charlotte Hornets -- are absolutely correct to change their primary colors to purple and teal starting with the 2014-15 season, to coincide with their nickname change. Team officials talked in depth about the decision in this exclusive interview with The Observer's Rick Bonnell.

I don't mind the old Hornet uniforms getting a slight tweak. That makes sense. But the primary colors had to stay the same. Purple and teal -- particularly teal -- were a huge part of the Bobcats' original appeal.

In their 14 years in the NBA before George Shinn moved the franchise to New Orleans, the Charlotte Hornets led the league in attendance eight times. That color scheme – designed by Alexander Julian – was incredibly popular. It regularly outsold the merchandise of every NBA team except Jordan’s Bulls.

Of course, it all went bad for the Hornets. They moved away in 2002. The Bobcats came in for the 2004-05 season, and since then have mostly struggled to make a wide swath of the Charlotte area care deeply about the NBA again.

A color and uniform change won't do that alone, of course. The Bobcats will need to win, too -- although they are a respectable 7-7 now in their final season as Bobcats. But evoking nostalgia makes a lot of sense for the soon-to-be Hornets, or else why would you go back to the original nickname in the first place?